Restaurateur Believes in Paying Back

Inside Michael Kang’s stylish Five Feet Too restaurant at Newport Beach’s Fashion Island, the beautiful people of Orange County come to enjoy the unusual food and distinctive art and architecture. Yang’s background as an architect and art lover radiates from every wall of his intriguingly decorated restaurant.

Kang co-owns another restaurant, Five Feet, in Laguna Beach. But the young businessman will be at neither dining place for Thanksgiving dinner today. Nor will Kang be hobnobbing with the upwardly mobile who are drawn to his restaurants.

Instead, Kang will be among Orange County’s poorest people. He worked at a charity soup kitchen Wednesday and will be there again today to serve Thanksgiving dinner to those who cannot afford to cook the feast themselves.

Kang said he volunteers to help the poor “because my grandparents always taught me you should give back to the community where you make it, and this community has been very good to me.”

Kang is donating his time to the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, which operates from the South Coast Christian Church, 792 Victoria St., Costa Mesa.

The soup kitchen’s founder, Merle Hatleberg, said Kang is virtually a model charity worker. “I think he is among the most wonderful men in the world,” Hatleberg said. “He is always doing something for the community.” She said that in addition to physically working at the soup kitchen, Yang is a major food donor. “Last year he brought us 65 turkeys, and this year he’s bringing 120,” Hatleberg said.

Kang downplayed his charitable role. “Many people and groups are helping in donating the turkeys,” he said.

As for his donation of time as a soup kitchen worker, Kang said he is the one who benefits. He said he is rewarded by seeing the happiness of hungry, poor people after they are fed and given loving attention.

“I’m just a part-time worker at the soup kitchen,” Kang said. “The real heroes are people like Merle Hatleberg and Jean Forbath (founder of Share Our Selves),” he said. “Those are the people who work 365 days a year to help the poor.”

Kang said that, until recently, he never realized how many poor people are in Orange County. “Then I went to SOS (Share Our Selves) and the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, and I worked there a few times, and I began to realize how many people are out there, just struggling and homeless,” he said.

Kang was born in Taiwan. He and his parents immigrated to the United States when he was about 8, and he grew up in Newport Beach and graduated from Corona del Mar High School in 1980. He attended the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Santa Monica, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1984. After practicing as an architect briefly, he decided to start a restaurant business. Success quickly followed.

Charity work, said Kang, “is my way of giving back.” He added, “I think the rewards overcome a million times the monetary amount you spend or the physical labor you have to put in.”

Michael C. Kang, 28

Occupation: Restauranteur

Organization: Someone Cares Soup Kitchen

Address: c/o South Coast Christian Church, 792 Victoria St., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92627. (714) 650-3503.